Youth group games for the church camps and youth fellowships, are essential to break the ice between teenagers attending them. Let’s have a look at some interesting indoor and outdoor games.
Requirements: 2 boxes of alphabet cereal, 2 bowls, 2 trays and 2 tables.
How to Play
✌ Arrange the players into two teams. Ask each team to stand behind the table laid with cereal bowls.
✌ Ask the teams to ‘write down five names of women from the old testament’, using the alphabet cereal. The team to form the names first is the winner of that round.
✌ Second round can have a slightly more complex question. The next question can be ‘write down the names of the first five books of the Bible’. (to make it even more complex, ask them to name the last five books of the Bible.)
✌ You can have as many rounds as you want and can have as simple to complex questions as you like. This way you have a quick game with an interesting quiz embedded in it.
Requirements : 4 large plastic bowls, petroleum jelly, lots of cotton balls.
How to Play
✌ Stick a piece of paper onto both the bowls and write ‘Team A’ and ‘Team B’ on them. Fill two bowls with cotton balls and place them on a table with some distance between them.
✌ Place two bottles of petroleum jelly next to each bowl. Place the other two empty bowls (label these as well) on the other table with the same distance separating them.
✌ Players from either team have to come forward and stand in front of the respective bowls. When you shout ‘Go’, they need to apply some petroleum jelly on their noses and pick up one cotton ball, without using their hands.
✌ They then have to quickly walk (or run) to the bowl on the other table and drop their cotton ball. If he drops the cotton ball midway, he has to start over.
✌ As soon as one player drops the cotton ball into the bowl, the next team member should apply petroleum jelly to continue the game.
✌ The team whose players have all successfully managed to drop all the cotton balls into the other bowl is the winner.
✌ You can increase the complexity by placing the tables further apart. You can also increase the number of cotton balls in bowl 1, to increase game time.
Requirements: 2 empty milk cartons, 2 empty cereal cartons and 2 empty Oreo cookie boxes.
Prior Preparation
Form two sets, with one of each type of carton in each set. Now cut the cartons into different pieces and mix them in a tray. Do the same with the other set.
How to Play
✌ Place the tray with the pieces in front of each team and ask them to complete the puzzle.
✌ This activity has no time limit and the team that completes this task first wins this game.
✌ Teams won’t be expecting three different puzzles and will try to fit all the pieces together. You can tell the teams there are three different puzzles in the mixture, if you think it would be too difficult to understand.
✌ However, to increase the complexity, it’s best not to mention it. You can use any carton you find; need not be the ones mentioned here.
Requirements: Bags of marshmallows
How to Play
✌ For this game, large marshmallows are needed. Give each team member a marshmallow and ask them to stand in a line.
✌ The idea is to lick the marshmallow, stick it onto the forehead and scamper all the way to the finish line. As soon as the first person reaches the finish line, the next member can run.
✌ However, if the marshmallow falls off while running, the team member has to pick it up, run back to the start line, stick it on again and then run (it’s better to give him another marshmallow for hygiene purposes.)
✌ The number of successful marshmallow runs will be recorded by the coordinator.
Requirements: Plastic glasses and straws
How to Play
✌ Place some plastic glasses and straws on two tables respectively.
✌ One member from each team comes forward and on the shout ‘go’, they blow into the straw such that the air from the straw pushes the glass forward.
✌ He is to push the glass past the finish line marked on the table. Once he finishes, the next person takes a plastic glass and again blows it till the finish line.
✌ This continues till all the players finishing blowing the glasses. The team that finishes first wins.
Requirements: 2 buckets full of popped popcorn, 2 paper plates, 2 empty buckets, measuring cylinder (large)
How to Play
✌ Place the bucket filled with popcorn at a particular place. Then place the empty bucket at distance of 50m from the other bucket.
✌ At a suitable distance from the two buckets place the other team’s buckets in the same manner.
✌ One team member is to run to the bucket with the popped popcorn, scoop the popcorn using the paper plate and then by hopping on one foot, he is to reach the empty bucket and drop the popcorn into it.
✌ As soon as the popcorn has been dropped into the bucket, the next member of the team has to run with the other paper plate and follow the same procedure.
✌ The team members have to try to collect as much popcorn as they can within three minutes.
✌ Measure the popcorn collected by the teams using a measuring cylinder. If you don’t have a measuring cylinder, just use a regular mug to measure the popcorn.
Requirements: Two buckets filled with water, 2 apples, 2 tables.
How to Play
✌ Fill ¾th of the bucket with water and drop the apple into it. Place the bucket on a table.
✌ Members of team A are asked to stand in a line, just behind the bucket. Same for team B.
✌ On the shout ‘Go’, the first member from each team is supposed to dip his head into the bucket and bite into the apple (hands have to remain behind one’s back).
✌ Once he fishes out the apple, he drops it back into the bucket and the next person tries to fish it out. This continues till all have fished out the apple.
✌ The team to finish first, that is all members have had a chance at fishing the apple wins.
✌ However, let’s not forget this is an extremely gross game and only if you think the participants are sportive enough to do this, should you keep this game.
Requirements: Lots of water balloons and two buckets
How to Play
✌ Ask the members of each team to stand in a circle with an arm’s distance away from each other.
✌ One player is given a water balloon from the bucket. This player on the shout ‘go’ has to pass the balloon to the person beside him. This way the water balloon has to be passed back to the first person.
✌ If the balloon breaks, they will have to take another one and start all over again.
✌ Within the three minutes allotted, they need to pass the water balloon through a complete circle, as many times as they can.
✌ The team that completes passing the water balloon intact is awarded 10 points for each round.
✌ To increase the complexity of the game, as soon as the balloon passes one complete circle, ask the players to move backwards and increase the distance between them. So throwing and catching the water balloon becomes more complex.
Requirements: Large sponge piece (8), buckets with water (2)
How to Play
✌ Each team is provided with a bucket filled with water and 4 sponges.
✌ Team members are asked to stand in a circle and one team member has to stand in the middle of the circle.
✌ The other team members standing at the circumference are to take the sponge, soak it in water and aim it at the person standing in the circle.
✌ Team members have to hit their team member in the middle of the circle, as many times as possible.
✌ The team to have more number of successful hits wins.
✌ This is a fun game, except for the guinea pig, who will be sheathed in mud and water, at the end of the game.
Requirements: Lots of mugs (as many as team members) and buckets of water (2)
How to Play
✌ Get the team members of each team to stand in a line. Give them all a mug each.
✌ Place a bucket filled with water in front of the first person in the line. Place the empty bucket behind the last person in the line.
✌ The idea is to transfer water, from the bucket filled with water at the beginning of the line to the empty bucket, at the end of the line.
✌ However, the catch is that the team members have to hold their mugs on top of their heads. The head and mug should be in contact at all times.
✌ The first person fills the mug and then places it on his head facing backwards. The person behind is to bend forward with the mug on his head and the water is to be tipped from one mug into another.
✌ The water is tipped from one mug to the other and the water received by the last person, needs to be dropped into the empty bucket.
✌ The teams get exactly 3 minutes to fill the bucket. Measure the water collected by both teams.
✌ The team to collect more water wins. This game is a lot of fun, however, you will have team members soaking wet, so its more suitable for camps.
These were just a few youth group games and activities that can be conducted at youth gatherings. Some of the above-mentioned games are suited for camps alone, because of the mess they create. Besides these games, the simple treasure hunt, snap hunt, Chinese whispers, Who am I, etc. are great youth group icebreaker games. Use your imagination and come up with interesting ideas for your church youth group games session. Have fun!